1:15 AM, August 7, 2013

Loading Photo Galleries ...

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Voters in metro Detroit picked winners to advance to November elections and made key decisions on funding police and fire service during today’s primary, which saw turnouts predictably light for a summer election.

In one closely watched election, voters in financially battered Allen Park decisively supported an emergency manager’s plea to pass a millage to forestall further layoffs of police officers and firefighters.

The measure passed with 70% of voters saying yes — 5,114 to 2,164. The approval means the city won’t need to lay off 15 of its 23 firefighters and seven of its 37 police officers, Mayor William Matakas said.

“It was a 38% turnout of voters, and that is really remarkable for an August election,” Matakas said.

In May 2012 and again in November, Allen Park voters defeated millage proposals. Voters were disillusioned after city funds were used for a movie studio, built next to city hall and now largely empty, City Clerk Mike Mizzi said.

Joyce Parker, appointed last fall as Allen Park’s emergency manager, held numerous public meetings to build support for Tuesday’s millage question, Mizzi said.

In Pontiac, where an emergency manager is due to leave this month, residents approved putting mayoral incumbent Leon Jukowski on the fall ballot with 25.62% of the vote among the five candidates. Jukowski will face the top vote-getter, Dr. Deidre Waterman, an ophthalmologist who tallied 30.75%.

The possibility of Jukowski’s re-election would make history because for decades the city “has never elected a mayor to consecutive terms — every four years we’ve changed mayors,” said City Councilman Kermit Williams.

Williams faced just one primary opponent, so both moved on to the November ballot without requiring a primary. Turnout was so low at one of the city’s nine polling places that only nine residents voted, Williams said.

■District 6: Doris Taylor Burks (39.14%) and Vanessa D. Coleman (26.67%). The seat was vacated by council president Lee Jones, who chose not to run again.

In Dearborn, Mayor Jack O’Reilly Jr. easily won the primary election, with a vote tally of 8,592, or 77.5%; second place, and facing him in November, is Edward Binkley with 989, or 8.92%.

In addition, 21 candidates ran for seven seats on the city council. Two incumbents declined to run, luring many newcomers. Five incumbents ran and four made the cut, with Councilman David Bazzy narrowly missing the final spot. The incumbents will be joined by three newcomers on the November ballot.